“I really learned how to be a businesswoman from Laura Baden,” Hudash said.

Hudash founded Team Kids in 2001 in response to an article she read about an Irvine boy suffering from a rare heart defect.

She rallied school kids to raise money to help the boy’s parents pay medical expenses.

They sold popsicles and held a pancake breakfast.

“Kids were trying to save this little boy’s life,” she said.

They raised $35,000.

The boy recently graduated from sixth grade.

The effort confirmed Hudash’s long-held belief: “Our young people are our most untapped resource in this world.”

“They want to change the world—they want to solve problems,” she said. “Nothing is impossible to an eight year old.”

Team Kids’ LemonAID program raises money for charities through lemonade stands.

About 1,200 kids with 225 stands raised $11,000 for Hurricane Katrina survivors. Most recently LemonAID raised about $41,000 in 20 days to help survivors in the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.

“But raising money is not our mission at all—it’s just a by-product,” Hudash said. “Our mission is raising responsible children ready for the 21st century.”